HARRISBURG, Pa.-The owner of a Quakertown, Pa., tire dealership has admitted he forged a state permit for collecting and recycling scrap tires-just one of several legal problems he faces with regard to his scrap tire operation. Daniel J. Carr, 56, owner of Carr's Tire and Automotive Specialists Inc., pleaded guilty June 30 to one count of forgery in connection with a falsified Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permit, according to an announcement from the state's acting Attorney General, Walter W. Cohen.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Bernard A. Moore fined Mr. Carr $1,500 and placed him on two years' probation.
Mr. Carr's scrap tire operation, which operated as Tire Technology, consists of a site in Richland Township, Pa., where he has stored between 500,000 and 1 million tires, according to the DEP.
The site also has resulted in civil action against Mr. Carr, said Kenneth Gelburd, Deputy Regional Chief for the Conshohocken Legal Office of the DEP.
Richland Township charged Mr. Carr and the Goodman Group Ltd., the owners of record of the land, with breaking the township's zoning laws, according to court records.
After a hearing in the Bucks County Common Pleas Court in March, both Mr. Carr and the Goodman Group were found to be in violation the charges and were required to clean up thesite.
And last December, the DEP (then known as the Department of Environmental Resources) cited Mr. Carr and his daughter, Susan Laarz, who also is involved in the operation, for 11 violations of the state's Solid Waste Management Act and its Clean Streams Law, according to DEP records.
They were ordered to stop dumping the tires on the site and assessed a civil penalty of $22,600 by the DEP for the violations.
That decision is currently being appealed to Pennsylvania's Environmental Hearing Board, Mr. Gelburd said.
The forged permit came to light as the result of an inquiry from one of Mr. Carr's tire disposal customers, Jetzon Tire & Rubber Co.
In 1993, Mr. Carr began collecting scrap tires from Jetzon-using the forged permit-in exchange for credit on new Jetzon tires, according to investigators from the attorney general's office.
After a few months, a Jetzon official contacted the DEP and discovered that Mr. Carr's permit was invalid, according to Senior Deputy Attorney General Ronald C. Stanko, who prosecuted the case.
``When we checked up on it, everything blew up,'' said a spokesman for Montgomeryville, Pa.-based Jetzon.
The DEP referred the case to the attorney general's office, whose Environmental Crimes Section conducted the investigation, assisted by the DEP. The complaint was filed in April.
Mr. Carr declined comment.